Let’s state the obvious up front: golf is an expensive sport, and if you’re anything like us, there are certain pieces of equipment where you tend to, well, go cheap. The one area where function completely dominated form in terms of gear has always been the golf glove. Does it come in black? That’ll work, ring us up. Needless to say, when we were asked to review Hirzl’s golf gloves, at first it seemed a bit silly. Now, of course, we know better.

The weather conditions for our initial test were about as ideal as one could ask for – partly cloudy with temperatures in the low 70s. This means that we didn’t get to really test how well the gloves (we used Hirzl’s Trust Control gloves) would function in extreme heat or rain, but you can work up a sweat even on the driving range in weather like that, and the gloves, which contain kangaroo leather (who knew?) with mesh on the tops so your hands can breathe, remained bone dry the entire time. When we removed the gloves after taking about 80 swings, the backs of our hands beaded with moisture, but the palms of our hands were as dry as the gloves, despite the insides of the gloves themselves feeling damp. The Trust Feel gloves, meanwhile, are promoted as the thinner of Hirzl’s Trust line, but the difference between them in terms of feel is negligible, and compared to our previous gloves, which had a tendency to inflict the occasional blister despite the fact that we’re not big swingers, these puppies felt like Snuggies for your hands. If anyone loses the grip of their club while wearing these gloves, they’re going out of their way to do something wrong.

So lesson learned: golf gloves matter, and these Hirzl gloves will be a godsend to monster swinging, ‘leave nothing in the bag’ golfers and finesse golfers alike. They also have us taking a long look at our golf shoes, and wondering if an upgrade is in store there as well.